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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/22957543">(We've) Got a Second Chance</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/BlackWolf105/pseuds/BlackWolf105'>BlackWolf105</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>The Odds are Long [3]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Life (TV), Person of Interest (TV)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Introspection, Slight Character Study</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-02-29</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-02-29</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-01 12:28:10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>655</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/22957543</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/BlackWolf105/pseuds/BlackWolf105</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>After returning to L.A., Parisa Shaw thinks a bit more about what happened in New York, and makes an important decision.</p><p>/**<br/>Follow up to Sure Things Go Wrong, But I'll Take My Chances.<br/>If you are new to this series, I highly suggest you go back and read the first two works. I may be biased, but trust me, it's worth it.<br/>**/</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>The Odds are Long [3]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1441222</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>4</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>22</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>(We've) Got a Second Chance</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Title is from Medicine by Daughter. Maybe its just me, but I recommend listening to it while you read.<br/>Comments and Kudos are always appreciated!<br/>Enjoy!</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Parisa Shaw stared blindly at the phone, the early evening sunlight drifting through the window only feet away.</p><p>Two months had passed since returning to Los Angeles from New York. Two months had passed while that small slip of paper lived, slowly growing older, in the bottom of the kitchen drawer.</p><p>When she had first seen what was written on the paper, she had been excited, her heart pounding in her chest. Believing that even though she was walking away – giving up – maybe it wasn’t the end after all.</p><p>But when she returned to L.A., she couldn’t bring herself to use it.</p><p>Instead she put it in the drawer, pretending it wasn’t there, and honestly, she couldn’t figure out why.</p><p>But every week, at the same time on the same day, she reached into that drawer and pulled out that paper. Then Parisa would pull up a chair and sit at the kitchen table, her phone resting in front of her as it had at the same time of the same day, every week for fifteen years.</p><p>This time however, she wasn’t waiting for it to ring.</p><p>For nearly two decades Parisa had been waiting for this moment - waiting for the time when she would pick up a phone and dial a number and her daughter would be on the other end. But every time she tried, every time her hand started reaching forward, her mind drifted back to her time in New York.</p><p>
  
</p><p>The Sameen she met in that New York apartment was nothing like the Sameen she remembered from all those years ago.</p><p>When she had first arrived in New York, she had been so sure, so confident. So sure that she would know her own daughter, so confident that whatever Sameen had become, she could accept it.</p><p>Then she was faced with the reality that the woman she met was a stranger wearing her daughters face.</p><p>When Sameen didn’t show up at the airport, Parisa wasn’t surprised or even hurt. Even now, she wasn’t sure if it had been the shock of the last few days, or if some part of her still hadn’t believed – hadn’t accepted – that it was really Sameen. That it wasn’t just some look-a-like, as Dani had suggested at the beginning of that ill-fated trip.</p><p>If she just didn’t want to accept that she couldn’t recognize her own daughter underneath what she had become.</p><p>A killer. A criminal. A vigilante.  </p><p>And as hard as it was for her to admit, Parisa wasn’t sure how okay with that she was.</p><p>Yet every time she went to throw that piece of paper away, she froze; her hand inches away from the trash, fingers refusing to release the tiny slip of paper which held the only connection to the person she had once known.</p><p>Because as much as she may try to deny it, that stranger she met in a random apartment in a random city across the country, really wasn’t a stranger at all. Not in the ways that mattered.</p><p>And does it really matter if Sameen wasn’t what Parisa had hoped?</p><p>After all, isn’t that part of being a parent? Watching your child grow, never knowing what the outcome would be, never knowing what part you may play, all the while just hoping that at the end of the day, everything would be alright?</p><p>So maybe Sameen wasn’t what Parisa had always imagined. Maybe she wasn’t the daughter that Parisa had always hoped for, but she was still her daughter. Still her Sameen.</p><p>Maybe it didn’t matter that Sameen wasn’t the same.</p><p>Maybe it was time for Parisa to get to know the daughter she did have, before it was too late.</p><p>
  
</p><p>The evening sun was warm on her hands as she picked up the phone, fingers confident as they pressed the digits to a number she hadn’t realized she’d memorized.</p><p>The phone rang and rang.</p><p>“<em>Hello</em>?”</p><p>“Sameen?”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Hey guys!<br/>I was thinking lately about my writing, and I have to say - this AU is one that I cannot get of my head. I'm not really sure what it is, but I've grown really attached to it.<br/>I'm thinking about adding more parts, about the Reese-Shaw's really getting to know this new Sameen and her friends. Learning to accept what they can't change, and getting into some trouble along the way.<br/>I know that some people after the Sure Things Go Wrong were disappointed that the Shaw's never really made up - but I honestly think that it would take more time to really do that, especially after Parisa really has time to process what happened. Hopefully in these next few fics, we'll see the family start to reconnect - but in a Team Machine kinda way.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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